Another builder arrested in Odisha for cheating of Rs 15 crore

Bhubaneswar (IANS). The Odisha Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) on Thursday arrested the Additional Director of a real estate firm for his alleged involvement in a Rs 15 crore fraud case.

The accused is Santosh Kumar Rath, additional director of real estate company Mishra Creations Pvt Ltd, which defrauded investors by providing them flats in its project ‘Utopia’ at Chandka, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Earlier, Jyoti Ranjan Mishra, managing director of the same real estate company, was arrested in a case registered on the basis of a complaint by Swadesh Ray Chowdhary.

Mishra is still in judicial custody.

EOW officials said that the duo cheated Swadesh as well as other investors in the name of allotting flats in the ‘Utopia’ project.

Santosh Rath was initially looking after the marketing work of the Utopia project. Later, he was appointed as the Additional Director of the company.

He along with Mishra collected over Rs 15 crore from over 130 investors since 2016 to provide them apartments.

As per the agreement, the flats were to be handed over within 30 months.

But till date, neither the real estate firm handed over the flat to her nor refunded her the amount invested even after lapse of 8 years, officials said.

The EOW also found that Santosh and Mishra also carried out several transactions in respect of a large number of flats already booked in the names of various investors.